AlphaTauri has officially announced that Liam Lawson will continue to serve as a substitute for Daniel Ricciardo until the latter is deemed fit to resume his racing activities. After Ricciardo crashed during Friday's second practice for the Dutch Grand and fractured his hand, Red Bull sent in youngster Lawson as a substitute. Although Lawson qualified 20th for the race, he performed admirably in his first Formula 1 race, finishing 13th despite dealing with wet weather, red flags, Safety Car restarts, and a penalty. At the same time, on Sunday, Ricciardo had his hand operated on in Spain. Christian Horner, the head of Red Bull, revealed the news after the race in Zandvoort that Ricciardo would be sidelined at least until after the Italian Grand Prix the following week.
F1: Ricciardo's Injury
After breaking his hand in an accident on Friday in Dutch Grand Prix practice, Daniel Ricciardo was forced to withdraw from the race. During FP2, Ricciardo crashed into the barriers at Zandvoort's Turn 3 while trying to avoid Oscar Piastri. Upon exiting the vehicle, the Australian driver seemed to be in obvious pain, and subsequent replays confirmed that Ricciardo had been grasping the steering wheel at the time of collision with the wall.
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After being brought to the medical facility and subsequently a nearby hospital, AlphaTauri has confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo fractured a metacarpal in his left hand and will not be able to compete in the race, which would have been the third for the Red Bull sister team since Ricciardo's return to F1. After that, on Sunday, Ricciardo had hand surgery in Spain.
“Had surgery this morning, got my first bit of metalwork so that’s cool,” the Australian driver posted on social media on Sunday evening. “Big thanks to everyone who reached out and kept my spirits up. This ain’t a setback, just all part of the comeback.”
After Sunday's race in Zandvoort, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated that the Honey Badger will be sidelined until at least the conclusion of the Italian Grand Prix next weekend.
“He had an operation earlier today, he’s had several screws and a plate fitted to his metacarpal, it went well, it was successful,” said Horner.
F1: Liam Lawson’s Dutch Grand Prix Performance
In spite of Liam Lawson's "sketchy" assessment of his F1 debut, Christian Horner praised him after the race. Last year, Lawson participated in three FP1 practice sessions with Red Bull and AlphaTauri before making his F1 race debut on Sunday. To finish the season's most weather-unpredictable race in 13th place is quite an accomplishment, especially considering he only had one rainy practice session to familiarise himself with the vehicle before qualifying.
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Liam Lawson, after finishing his maiden Formula One race, said, "The aim was to do all 72 laps today. When I first got on the grid and it started raining, it wasn’t the best feeling. After that, we had no choice but to make the pitstop but unfortunately, we got a penalty and lost a huge amount of time during it. I think once we got clean air during the second half of the race and then drove on the intermediate tyres at the end, my pace wasn’t so bad. There’s some work to do, but I’m just happy to have gotten through the race, experiencing different conditions and scenarios, to be able to take them forward."
Lawson handled the mayhem of his first race like a seasoned competitor. He was penalised once for blocking Magnussen in the pit lane, although this was not his fault since his team had chosen to double-stack its drivers and the pit lane was too narrow for them to do so without obstructing the cars behind them.
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